This application relates to short double stranded RNAi probes useful in cancer therapy and treatment of other diseases. RNA interference or “RNAi” is a term initially corned by Fire and co-workers to describe the observation that double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) can block gene expression when it is introduced into worms (Fire et al. (1998) Nature 391, 806-811, incorporated herein by reference). dsRNA directs gene-specific, post-transcriptional silencing in many organisms, including vertebrates, and has provided a new tool for studying gene function. RNAi involves mRNA degradation, but many of the biochemical mechanisms underlying this interference are unknown. The use of RNAi has been further described in Carthew et al. (2001) Current Opinions in Cell Biology 13, 244-248, and Elbashir et al. (2001) Nature 411, 494-498, both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Within any given mRNA molecule, there are sites which are affected by RNAi probes, and sites which are not. Thus, one cannot simply chop up the overall sequence into subsequences of appropriate lengths (for example, 21 to 23 base pairs) to arrive at functional RNAi-based therapeutics. Indeed, published US Patent Application 2002-0086356-A1 discloses a method for use in assessing where target sites might be located in a mRNA sequence, although this method is not the only approach to development of effective RNAi sequences.